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For the Record: You treat him with civility

Jessica Estepa   | Paste BN

Happy Friday, For the Record friends! Somehow, we made it through the back-to-back debate nights and Reince Priebus's veiled assurances that yes, of course the RNC will back Trump if he's the nominee before the actual start of one of those debates. We've also received confirmation on something we always had an inkling about but never knew for sure: CNN's countdown clocks are completely arbitrary.

C'est la vie. Let's look at what happened last night.

We're just as shocked as you

The 12th #GOPDebate took a turn on Thursday...but instead of for the worst, it was toward civility? Somehow, a mere week after we learned more than we ever needed to know about Donald Trump's hands, the Republican candidates actually engaged in discourse. Sure, there were disagreements over Social Security, immigration and much more, but they weren't the shouting-over-the-top-of-each-other matches that we've come to expect. Joining us in our surprise over this development is the Donald himself: "So far, I cannot believe how civil it's been up here." Neither can we, Donald. Neither can we.

Marco takes Don't Stop Believin' to heart

Yesterday morning, we told you about Marco Rubio's flailing campaign. We may have seen the last vestiges of it last night, as Rubio tried to make his final case before the people who he represents in the Senate (you know, when he actually shows up). He put on his policy hat, he showed off his Cuban roots, he didn't say anything particularly disparaging about You-Know-Who (though he still took the time to point out that You-Know-Who's rhetoric isn't very presidential). He told stories about his parents and his supporters and he shrugged over his state washing away because what causes climate change, anyway? We'll see if any of this makes a last-minute difference (for better or worse) when Floridians vote on Tuesday.

Trump's trumping takes on a new definition

Was it just us or was Trump more subdued than usual? Yes, we know, the man basically called for the legalization of waterboarding and continued to bash Muslims, but comparably, he wasn't nearly as bombastic as he normally is (again, please see the remark on civility above). He tried to differentiate between "strong" and "good" when talking about Vladimir Putin (the bro's definitely the first, not necessarily the second). He said he hoped that his rhetoric wasn't inciting violence at his rallies (coming from the man who said he could shoot someone and still not lose any voters). He called on the establishment to "be smart and unify." Is this the kind of Trump we would see more of come general election time?

More from the campaign trail

A reminder that this was supposed to be the last primary debate

But alas, it is not. March 21, here we come! What will we do in the 10 days until then? Dance and watch rom-coms, of course.

*Giving credit where it's due: Today's subject line comes from the musical Hamilton. Yay Hamlet!

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